Electrum will be most unusual, gold rare, and scarcer still will be a platinum piece or a small gem! Rarest of all, treasure of treasures- the magic item - is detailed hereafter (PLACEMENT OF MAGIC ITEMS). If some group of creatures actually has a treasure of 11 gold pieces, another will have 2,000 coppers and yet a third nothing save a few rusty weapons. Of course, all treasure is not in precious metals or rare or finely made substances. Is not a suit of armor of great value? What of a supply of oil? a vial of holy water? weapons? provisions? animals? The upper levels of a dungeon need not be stuffed like a piggy bank to provide meaningful treasures to the clever player character.

Now if only I could find a reference to nine giant rats in the 1e DMG my quest would be complete...

Going back even further, in the Holmes Basic rulebook one of the treasures in the very first room (Room A) in the Sample Dungeon is exactly 2000 cp. Knowing JM's love of Holmes Basic I wouldn't be surprised if his use of 2000 cp was intentionally referencing that. Plus almost every treasure in that dungeon is an even 100 or 1000 pieces.

Exactly. I understand the over-use of empty rooms being problematic, but the outrage against 2,000 cp just seems overkill to me. If you going to complain about a module, talk about substantive qualities.

As far as I know Maliszewski dropped off the face of the planet after the Kickstarter for Dwimmermount was successful and he found he couldn't keep up with actually finishing the product to make it publishable. The folks over at Autarch finished it up and got it published for Labyrinth Lord and their in house system ACKS.

I like letting players roll for coin. Not sure what you think of that idea, but it gets me two things.

First, I dislike round coinage numbers that don't make sense. They're like a modern TV reference made by a character - total believability breaker.

Second, my players like the chance to do the roll. It's a bit of nice tension - will they roll high or low? And a bit social - "Never let Johnn roll, he's got bad luck." {Johnn snatches the dice and rolls a 2. Everyone groans and renews vows to never let Johnn roll for treasure.}

When I roll up treasure hoards, I take the numbers rolled and modify them with d10s. For instance, 2000 CP would be redone as 1000 CP plus 1d1000, reading triple 0 as zero, so 1,000 to 1,999; a hoard of 2500 GP would be 2400 plus 1d100. Sometimes the figures will be round, but usually not.

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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (thank you Kickstarter) (edit) BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and will soon have some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep shipping shortly in my grubby hands awaiting a review..

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls (and still waiting on dT&T to ship).

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 48, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)